Atomic Age Atlanta: Space Monkeys over Mableon

[jack_babalon]

"Wha' the hell we lookin' at?" Arnold Payne asked. He reeked of cheap after shave and even cheaper bourbon. No one answered. No one was quite sure what it was they were looking at. The only thing they were certain of was the figures crouched in the dark, gibbering & shrieking weren't human! The creatures crouched and lept back and forth along the moon lit clearing. They were humanoid looking, but were much smaller and had used all four limbs to propel themselves along the darkness. The three men huddled deeper into the seats of the 1948 Chrysler Town & Country convertible, taking sips off Tom's flask for courage and wondering if this was it. If they witnessing the first arrivals of beings from another planet!


It's 1953 and there ain't much to do in Atlanta on a Saturday night. Three friends; Arnold Payne, Tom Wilson & Ed Waters decide on an evening out drinking & joy riding for shits & giggles. It was Ed who noticed the bright lights zig zagging over Bankhead Highway. At first the boys figured it was some airplane having a hard time making a landing. But the lights didn't look like any aircraft they'd ever seen. The lights stopped in mid air and hovered there for a few minutes. The boys realized what it was they were looking at- a flying saucer- just like in the movies & comic books! It spinned in mid air without a sound, floating for a good minute then zoomed in and landed just off the highway. The boys just looked at each other and without another word sped off after the saucer. They pulled into a clearing where the craft vanished, killed the lights and shut off their car and waited. After a few minutes they heard a noise and as their eyes adjusted to the dark they could make out a movement. That's when they saw the aliens come over the clearing. The boys sat there stunned. They may just well be the first human beings to see life from another planet. Thing like that calls for a drink surely! But suddenly one of the creatures turned towards the car, cocked its head back and forth not sure what it was looking at and then began howling. The others heard this and quickly joined in on the screaming chorus. They began leaping up and down growing more frantic by the minute!
"Ed fer chrissakes they can see us!" Tom screamed and Arnold gripped the dashboard frozen with fear but Ed wasn't about to be scared by no goddam space critter, flying saucer or not!
"Hang on" Ed yelled to the boys and floored the gas pedal. The headlights flooded the aliens, and the boys could see that they were pink, ugly little bastards. With evil little monkey faces they hissed and ran for the flying saucer. Ed was coming up on them and he could hear Tom & Arnold screaming like a bunch of goddam girls but he was catching up on the little fuckers and when one of the aliens tripped - BANG! It went flying off the front bumper into a tree. Ed hit the brakes just in time to see the saucer ascend over the clearing, thousands of blinking lights swirling along the surface until it rose quickly into the air. The boys got out of the car, trembling with adrenalin. It was Tom who found the body of the alien they had just ran over. There was only one thing to do in a situation like this. Drive the alien corpse straight to the local newspaper. They were gonna be heroes, why they could see the headlines now: "Local boys fight off alien invasion!"

This is a true Story. Kinda. I ran into this researching the history of Atlanta. One of the resources I had was a great book called Sideways Atlanta: A Field Guide to Offbeat Attractions in the "City Too Busy to Hate" by Suzanne Winterberger and Bill Tomey. One of the storys to stick out for me was the story of three boys out joyriding who see a UFO, track it down and then proceed to striking down one of the 'aliens' via Vehicular Homocide! This wasn't the first time the Peach state had to deal with UFO phenomena, the year before Ed Waters ran down his 'space alien'. In early September the skies of Atlanta played host to a series of strange lights:

September 1, 1952 - UFOs Sighted In Atlanta and Marietta, GA
In one of the few series of sightings that the Air Force classified as "unknown" in Project Blue Book, Georgia citizens including an Army Air Force B-25 gunner, an artillery officer, and a total of 35 other people reported seeing various UFO in the night sky. The sightings begin in Atlanta at 9:43 pm and continued northwest into Marietta until after 11:00pm.
Sept. 1, 1952; Atlanta, Georgia. 9:43 p.m. Witnesses: Mrs. William Davis and nine other persons. One light, similar to the evening star, moved up and down for a long period of time.
1952-09-01; Marietta, GA
Sept. l, 1952; Marietta, Georgia. 10:50 p.m. Witness: ex-AAF B-25 gunner. Two large white disc-shaped objects with green vapor trails flew in trail formation, merged, flew away very fast. Sept. 1, 1952; Marietta, Georgia. 10:30 p.m. Witness: one unidentified person using binoculars. Two large objects shaped like spinning tops and displaying red, blue and green colors, flew side by side, leaving a sparkling trail for 30 minutes. Sept. l, 1952; Marietta, Georgia. 10:30 p.m. Witnesses: Mr. Bowman (ex-artillery officer) and 24 others. A red, white, and blue-green object which spun and shot off sparks for 15 minutes.
(Source: http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/chronpop/1147 & Project Bluebook Unknowns)

So just what were these strange critters that picked the wrong part of the bible belt to land? Well I did a little snooping around, and found an FBI archive on the incident: Here is a full copy of the report:


Date: July 10, 1953
To: Director of Special Investigations The Inspector General Department of the Air Force The Pentagon Washington 25, D.C.
From: John Edgar Hoover, Director Federal Bureau of Investigation
Subject: Flying Saucers
The following information was furnished to the Atlanta Field Office of this Bureau at 3:45 A.M. on July 8, 1953 by Mr. reporter. Mr. stated Mr. Northeast, Atlanta, Georgia, telephone number contacted him at the office of the and advised as follows: According to he and two other companions, while travelling in an automobile on Bankhead Highway in the vicinity of Mableton, Georgia, encountered three small animals which they believed had landed from a flying saucer. aters advised as he and his companion approached, the three animals started making their way back to what was believed to be a flying saucer. According to ters, two of the animals in the flying saucer but the third was killed when hit by the automobile in which Waters and his companions were riding. According to aters displayed the animal which had been killed to him at the newspaper office. stated the animal did not resemble anything he had ever seen before but it looked as though it belonged to the monkey family. According to the animal was approximately 21 inches long, had a rather pointed head, large ears and pinkish skin. states because of the early morning hour he was unable to locate a scientist to examine the animal, but he did have one of the leading veterinarians of Atlanta, Georgia, examine it...... The vet described the creature as a "hairless monkey" and Dr. W. A. Mickle of Emory University called it a hairless member of the Rhesus Monkey family.
From http://www.fbi.gov/foipa/ufo/ufo11.pdf


Another point of interest that I should point out is that this 'hairless monkey' was found by two barbers (Tom Wilson & Ed Waters) & a butcher(Arnold Payne)! Odds are this whole close encounter could be easily explained as a couple of good ol' boys having fun shaving a monkey and telling the authorities that they had themselves a 'Space Alien'! Of course the real question is how the hell did two barbers & a butcher find a Rhesus monkey in the first place....?

Comments

*Weeping* Pink Space Monkeys, Come Back

[bookmonkey211.livejournal.com]

Who would run over a pink space monkey? Red Neck Bastards, I tell you. I can not express the joy pink space monkeys would bring me, but I guess they'll never return after that reception. It's always a few that ruin it for the rest of us!